Few aesthetics capture the hot, fleeting allure of summer romance like those found in turn-of-the-19th-century France. Take a walk down memory lane with modern takes on time-tested trends.

Ah, summer love. It’s hot, sweet and fleeting. It offers the thrill of the moment and a longing for the past. Few aesthetics capture the ephemera of summer romance like those found in turn-of-the-19th-century France. The period saw the ornamental designs of the late Neoclassical movement reach peak popularity, as well as the rise of the sumptuous motifs that defined the Romantic period. “It was an era in which everything was changing very quickly,” says designer Timothy Corrigan, who has channeled the movement’s extravagance throughout his career, including in his painstaking five-year renovation of a Loire Valley chateau. “The Age of Enlightenment saw the transition from the rigid yet exuberant style of Louis XIV and XVI to a freer, post-Revolution society.”

Though the Neoclassical movement began in opposition to the opulent styles that had reigned supreme throughout the 18th century, it evolved into something that was arguably every bit as over the top. Inspired by the architecture of Imperial Rome and ancient Greece, the Neoclassical designs that emerged in France in the latter half of the 18th century prioritized strict symmetry and lavish ornamentation—giltwood furniture, passementerie trims and sparkling chandeliers galore. But after the French Revolution, a defiant new design movement arose. Romanticism favored creativity and individuality over order and reason, and flourished in France in the first half of the 19th century. Drawing inspiration from the unruliness of nature and raw human emotion, the Romantics believed feelings to be a kind of aesthetic experience, much like listening to a heart-wrenching song or reading a poignant poem. Passion and artistic expression were inextricably linked. As a result, Romantic design motifs were imaginative and ethereal, often translating elements of the natural world—flora, fauna and the big blue sky—into idealized, emotive and atmospheric scenes.